Great leaders with guns.

Soviet leader Brezhnev. When guns are restricted, they become status symbols and the rulers pose with them. That doesn’t mean they support gun ownership for the “proles”. The first gun control on record, the 1518 prohibition on wheel locks, was authored by the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I, an avid collector of advanced firearms for his own use.

12 Responses to Great leaders with guns.

My sense of the bans like New York’s and Feinsteins is that they are, essentially, sumptuary laws. The focus on the “military-style” features is about asserting status. That Feinstein’s bill would allow government officials and retired law-enforcement to own weapons she apparently believes have no use except mass murder makes it clear just whose status she’s protecting.

Ooooh, “sumptuary law” is a phrase I’ve not heard in a LONG time, possibly involving a college course in medieval history. Good way to look at it – I like it. “This class can, that class can’t. Why? Because we said so, and WE make the rules.”

There seems to be an awful lot of smoke in that bottom photo. Black powder shotgun? And what is that stuff coming out the side?
On exempting LEO from gun control: I suspect the reason is that politicians give themselves LEO status, so the actual intent is to exempt themselves. I doubt they care about cops.
What’s needed is an Equal Protection Amendment — forbid politicians owning or benefiting from any weapons prohibited or restricted for real people.

All I know is back in 2004, when Congress was debating giving off-duty and retired LEOs national reciprocity, Brady and VPC were all over, “they’ll make mistakes and shoot innocent people and cost cities billions in liability.”

I can’t remember where I snagged this, but it was back in BBS days. I haven’t
authenticated it but here goes:

“The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in
their posession any swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other type of
arms. The posession of these elements makes difficult the collection
of taxes and dues and tends to permit uprising. Therefore, the heads
of provinces, official agents, and deputies are ordered to collect all
weapons mentioned above and turn them over to the government.”
— Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Shogun, 29 August, 1558

True. I’m reminded of a neat article by Massad Ayoob in one of the gun magazines, entitled “Dag”. It starts to read like a modern day news item, but halfway through it becomes clear it describes one of the first state sponsored terrorist attacks — the assassination of William of Orange sponsored by the king of Spain. That was done with a wheellock, the high tech handgun of the time. One of the main points of the article is the need for using adequate defensive weapons, which William’s bodyguards did not have.

Oleg, no need to attribute copyright. Pete Souza is the official photographer and government employee taking a picture of a public servant on taxpayer dime. There is legally no copyright associated with it, nor can there be.

Pete Souza (born 1954)[1][2] is an American photojournalist and the current Chief Official White House photographer for President Barack Obama and Director of the White House Photography Office.